Merchant Guild

G

Gulielmos

Newbie
My fellow travellers and warriors, it has been awhile since I have poked my head out of the forge. I have been thinking about how as a town we need to band together. We have a common coinage and some common beliefs.

Perhaps it is time we unify our trades and create a guild for them. This will ensure favorable prices and fair trade.
 
Master Fargal,

I would certainly support such an organization, especially if this guild would buy useful items at production value from adventurers who have no need of them. As an example, I have no need of arrows, but I'm not much of a merchant within the community, either, so I tend to sell my unneeded goods while I'm traveling. I've always disliked that, so I would certainly enjoy having a general trade guild that I could sell to, with the knowledge that the items will eventually make it to my allies who can make use of such things.

Is this a service you foresee your guild providing?

-Zeth
 
Hello once again Master Zeth it has been far too long. Yes, I believe as a general trade guild that would be one of our base services. Since what caster needs arrows.

The idea, good Sir, would be that you have things you don't need or want. So you can sell them at cost to the guild and we could then sell your unwanted goods to others.

Have a component for a ritual but don't know what it does we can help. You raise a good point here is what basic services would be rendered.

At cost selling of unwanted items, quick appraisal of magic items and access to Ceripolis's greatest forge.

Other requests can be made of the guild and the guild will be working on bringing outsiders to town to showcase their wares.
 
Fargal, I would be curious to see more details about this proposal and what you have in mind for how items would be resold/redistributed.

While I'm not against the idea, I will say in all honesty that I make a decent amount of my income through buying and selling items on a regular basis, and I'm not the only one in town doing so. I would like to find ways that such a guild could help support the merchanting adventurers and not negatively impact their existing streams of income.

-Lord Polare Lissenstine
 
Lord Polare,

Are you suggesting that adventurers who are up-and-coming merchants within the community be potentially discouraged from selling wares in a manner that might be competitive with other active merchants?

I'm not entirely certain I'm comfortable with that. But I may be misunderstanding you.

-Dominus Zeth
House of Pain and Purity
 
Of course not! Everyone should have a fair chance on competitiveness, given their station and position within the community (a convicted Necromancer should perhaps not have the same rights of trade as others, for example). However, I would strongly oppose anything which forced traders to sell or purchase at set rates (as I have heard of in other lands), or be unable to compete with one another based on rules of a Guild, or other such restrictions on their normal mercantile endeavors.

As an example: Should Master Fargal propose a place where it is -expected- that items are turned in at cost, and -expected- that people may purchase from that Guild (and *only* that Guild) at a specific multiple of cost, I would be strongly against the idea. If instead, Master Fargal is merely advertising a new operation that is intended to compete fairly against other existing mercantile operations in the area, no problem. Or if Master Fargal is looking at coordinating buying and selling patterns across merchants - perhaps this Guild buys unneeded items at cost, and will resell them at cost to other Merchants in the Guild who have standing "buy" orders against specific items that come in - then I would be interested in finding out more. Either way, more detail is needed - that is why I asked for such.

-Lord Polare Lissenstine
 
Hello Lords, Ladys, Goodmen and Goodwomen,

Inadvertently happened upon this conversation while in the dreaming. I am Captain Aramis Seablade of the FairFax Merchant's Guild in the Kingdom of Wayside of Terna. I have recently received the nomination to be the new guild master and have been learning much of the history of how are guild started and the communal contracts that the guild used. I feel this may be of some use to you if you would agree please have the person that would be acting as the guild leader send my a pigeon and I will help in anyway I can.

In Service,
Captain Aramis Seablade
 
Lord Polare --

I think I understand what you mean.

Would you have such concerns if a merchant was free to join a guild, abide by any such rules that they had, but retain the freedom to leave at any moment they wished, and retain their independence?

I believe that a guild would serve little purpose for the community if the community was unable to have some sort of universal expectations as to how to interact with it.

--Dominus Zeth
 
Sorry dear Masters and Lord,

All these requests for things needed around our fair city keeps me busy. To be fair to our esteemed Lord Polare he is actually the reason I thought of this idea.

To honestly answer no one would be forced to sell or be apart of the Guild. The idea was sell unwanted goods to the Guild or for new adventurers they could get outfitted by the Guild.

I will not force it on anyone to join but I know for me I drive everyone crazy with how busy I get in my forge. Orders sometimes get mislabeled and feelings hurt. So the Guild would be a way to help out the city. No forced entry and the only common leveling out of price would be for big items. I expect merchants to make coin and I am open to methods to boost our economy.

It would also be nice to be able to allow the town to see something besides the Houses as a way to balance out the town.

I have been away from the front lines of our fight this last year so I don't know how it fares. The Guild is a place outside the tavern to meet and discuss. If the townsfolk have a problem while the Houses are out fighting the war this could be used to resolve conflicts.

When other people travel here from the Mist and from the other lands let them see a united front and a prosperous town. Good people bleed and die for the cause of this town perhaps it's time they get an identity all their own.
 
As a new merchant myself, I personally can find a value in having a guild structure exist that can more easily help me locate buyers and sellers of various goods (and then deliver said goods) rather than having to place an order and waiting for shipment of items that might be needed post haste. Surely this is no problem for people of Polaire's stature who likely have warehouses full of stock, but when someone comes to me looking to buy say 100 silver arrows and I only have 30 on me it sucks to not get them what they need when they need it. Also, my current way of finding clients is fairly lackluster and limited since it is usually just me buying up the loot after an adventure with my party which does not get my name out there in a very fast fashion. There is a gathering soon and I would love to discuss this idea further in more detail in person.
 
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